AUBURN, Ala. - Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury wants his team to be able to hold onto games at the end.<br>
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Auburn's Jeff Lebo merely wants the Tigers to hold onto the ball after committing a season-high 25 turnovers in Wednesday night's loss at Mississippi.<br>
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``The winning and losing will take care of itself,'' said Lebo, whose Tigers have committed 44 turnovers in the past two games, both losses. ``I want to play better, especially valuing the basketball. We haven't done that for whatever reason the last two games.''<br>
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The Bulldogs (12-10, 3-6 Southeastern Conference) have lost four of five games. Their latest difficult defeat was Wednesday night when Alabama's Ronald Steele hit a layup with 6.7 seconds left for an 80-79 victory.<br>
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Mississippi State's six SEC losses have come by an average 5.2 points.<br>
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``We didn't do things we had to do,'' Stansbury said. ``It hurts. They felt like we had a chance to win and we didn't finish it off.<br>
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``It's difficult. Four SEC games we've had the chance to tie it or win (at the end) and neither went our way.''<br>
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The Tigers (14-11, 4-6) can surpass their highest league and overall win totals of the past three seasons with a victory, but have lost three of their last four games.<br>
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They have also struggled in recent years against Mississippi State, despite winning the last two at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.<br>
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The Bulldogs have won 10 of the past 12 meetings, outrebounding the Tigers in every game during that stretch.<br>
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But those turnovers, many of them off careless mistakes, are what's bothering Lebo most these days.<br>
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``The Arkansas game was a one-possession game with two minutes to go in that game,'' he said of that 65-57 loss. ``We just had some crucial mistakes coming down the stretch that you can't have because we don't get shots.<br>
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``We are not a great shooting team anyway, but when you don't get an attempt it is hard to win basketball games and score points.''
